Nintendo: details about the new account system and membership service
During the usual meeting with investors, which always follows the presentation of the latest financial results, Nintendo talked one of the basic elements of its strategy: “expansion of the gaming population”. Tatsumi Kimishima (the president) mentioned the various characters, which are the source of Nintendo’s IP value.
To expand the gaming population, Nintendo is aiming to:
- increase the amount of people having access to “Nintendo IP or video game characters, music and world view”
- increase the value of said IP
One way for Nintendo to achieve this is by releasing applications on smart devices, but also having new attractions at theme parks using Nintendo IP, licencing the IP for “visual content” and “merchandising products” (TV series, movies, merchandise), and more. According to Tatsumi Kimishima, this will allow the company to maximise the value of its IP, which have been confined to traditional gaming platforms so far.
In order to connect all these “Nintendo experiences”, the company is planning to launch a new account system (Nintendo Account) and a new membership service (My Nintendo).
Tatsumi Kimishima explains that more than half of people trying to create an account for an online service usually give up halfway through. Also, he mentioned how easy it was for users to forget their username or password. In order to avoid those two problems, Nintendo focused on making the new account system easy to create, easy to use, and harder to forget.
It was revealed that you would be able to login using the following:
- Nintendo Network ID
- Twitter account
- Facebook account
- Google + account
- Username + Password
In other words, the Nintendo Account (that’s the name of the account system) will most definitely use OAuth (an open standard for authorisation), which is actually used on NicoNico: it allows users to log in to their account using their Nintendo Network ID. This system is also used on plenty of other services, where you can log in using your Twitter or Facebook account.
Tatsumi Kimishima revealed that players will soon be able to purchase downloadable software for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS directly via Nintendo’s website. It’s actually possible already for Nintendo games and select Virtual Console titles on Nintendo.com, in North America, but not in Europe or Japan. Also, Nintendo didn’t say whether it would be possible to buy everything (including third-party titles and DLC), or just first-party games.
With this system, when players see an interesting game on the internet (via their PC, smartphone, tablet), they will be able to purchase it right away and have it downloaded to their systems automatically.
Nintendo will also have a system providing “hospitality for each consumer”. To be more precise, the company will send notices and gifts based on their purchase history and play records. Tatsumi Kimishima gave some examples:
- Isabelle will send information and/or present to Animal Crossing players
- Mario Kart players will receive notifications about additional content now available for download
- special promotions on your birthday
Tatsumi Kimishima also gave details about the new point program (replacing Club Nintendo). Unlike its predecessor, it will allow users to get points not only by buying games, but also by playing them. It will work with console games (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, etc.), but also Nintendo’s applications on smart devices.
Users will be able to use those points to get:
- digital add-on content
- original merchandise
- coupon (discounts)
With the membership service, users will be able to add other users as friends, but only if they know each other and have consented to the “relationship” (which is pretty much how all friend systems work). You will be able to interact with friends on both dedicated gaming platforms and mobile applications.
But that’s not all: it was revealed that the membership service would allow for storage of game save data (including character data) in Nintendo’s cloud system so that players can use them on both their dedicated game systems and their smart devices. According to Tatsumi Kimishima, Nintendo is planning to offer the membership service benefits at theme parks, movie theaters, retail outlets, and more.
This new membership service is called My Nintendo, and it will serve as a bridge between dedicated gaming platforms and smart devices. It will be launched in March 2016. Unfortunately, Nintendo didn’t say if Nintendo Accounts would also be launched then.
Source: Nintendo